Hello everyone, my name is Lizzie Jenkins, I’m volunteering with the LWF Youth desk for a week and I’m a student here in Switzerland. I’m going to tell you my understanding, my opinions and share with you some videos about Climate change or Climate justice. My understanding and opinion So, after doing lots and lots [...]

by Ms Mami Brunah BARO SANDANIAINA Three weeks of activities bringing young Lutherans together to celebrate the 500th years of Dr. Martin Luther’s reformation. Youth participation is one of the Lutheran World Federation Cross-Cutting priorities and the LWF Youth Desk is supporting youth from member churches by encouraging them to be more involved in [...]

The watchword for the year 2015 can be found in the letter of Paul to the Romans in Chapter 15,Verse 7: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” I find this watchword is a truly global one: only by accepting each other we can fully experience [...]

By Thato Ramakoba, Botswana Is pledging time for church really worth it? Allow me, for minute, to take you back to my childhood. We had quite a big family, an extended family for that matter and we weren’t well-off, sometimes we’d sleep on empty stomachs, be it on a Saturday night but one thing [...]

Hello everyone, my name is Lizzie Jenkins, I’m volunteering with the LWF Youth desk for a week and I’m a student here in Switzerland.

I’m going to tell you my understanding, my opinions and share with you some videos about Climate change or Climate justice.

My understanding and opinion

So, after doing lots and lots of reading about climate change, I suddenly realized the urgent need for help. In the past, I have just watched documentaries on “Climate Change” and I never stopped and thought about it for even a minute in my life. I would just say to myself: “Well, that was good.” And move on, as if nothing was.

Only now I realize that it’s a major thing around the world and that, YEAH, we need to keep on fighting for Climate Justice.

After lengthy reading and watching videos from YouTube or various other websites, I would like to share with you 3 videos from 3 different point of views on Climate change.

The First video is Leonardo Di Caprio (who is a climate ambassador to the UN) concerns on the subject.

These videos allow us to understand and see that it is concerning everybody. From the Political leaders, to the normal citizens and finally to the church.

EVERYONE IS DOING THEIR BIT TO FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE!

My opinion is: We are all trying our best, we need to stay focused and not be pulled down by other people who aren’t agreeing with us.

Source: Google Images

Different links to either videos or texts on Climate Change

As I was saying earlier in the text, I did lots of reading and spent a lot of time on the web looking at videos on the urgent matter and seeing how people around the world are dealing with climate change and how people from these communities are helping, so I would like to share yet more links to videos, which I found very touching:

In these videos I truly respect the work that all the people have put in, from the people in the communities to the people filming and even doing the language translations. I would have found it very hard (from the filming side) to have worked in such an environment, it takes courage I think.

I’ll leave you with a quote that is helping me go on day by day and will hopefully inspire you to continue helping:

“Firstly, they will ignore you, then they will laugh at you, they will fight you and then you WILL WIN! ” Mahatma Gandhi

Three weeks of activities bringing young Lutherans together to celebrate the 500th years of Dr. Martin Luther’s reformation.

Youth participation is one of the Lutheran World Federation Cross-Cutting priorities and the LWF Youth Desk is supporting youth from member churches by encouraging them to be more involved in the church life and activities. Initiative support is one of the best way to make that practical and the Malagasy Lutheran Church was one of the lucky chosen church which was been selected to benefit this support, in 2014.

Currently, the Reformation anniversary is one of the most important event for Lutheran churches around the word. Thus, the initiative consisted on bringing together young people to celebrate this event and know more about the Lutheran identity by different activities such as Sport (football and volleyball), verbal and writing expositions of Martin Luther and reformation’s stories and reformation song and literary work (poetry and book) competition.

The opening activities, started on Sunday August31st, 2014, which was also the Lutheran Communion in Central and Eastern Africa (LUCCEA) Youth Sunday which is celebrated each last sunday of August), with an opening worship in a Malagasy Lutheran Church in Boeny Mahajanga Synod, Mahajanga Parish, Tsaramandroso congregation, lead by the Synod vice president Rev. RAKOTO Andriamamonjimisainasoa.

On Tuesday, September 2nd 2014, the opening worship was lead by Rev. David ANDRIA MONGOLANDY T. and he explained the chosen theme of the celebration from Rom 1 :17 to focus on the justification by faith as the first light which marked the starting point of Martin Luther’s idea of church reformation. State representative from the Boeny Mahajanga region officially open the celebration activities with the Boeny Mahajanga Lutheran Church Synod President Rev. RAMARO.

During three weeks, from Thursday 4th to Saturday 20th of September, verbal exposition of the Martin Luther’s ninety five theses was explained by a pastor, devotions was been lead by young person, the scripture was shared by old person daily on between 3 football matches. The writing exposition was opened for everybody, T-shirt, small booklets summarizing the reformation and Martin Luther’s story and Lutheran identity was been sell. The “Martin Luther’s song competition” was done step by step each Sunday afternoon.up to the final phase The closing worship was on September 21st 2014 in the Antanimalandy Lutheran Church, Antanimalandy Parish, Boeny Mahajanga Synod. During these three weeks of holiday, more than 250 youths participated on the sport event (11 football and 2 volleyball teams), 200 youths on the song’s competition (5 groups of choirs), 2 youths participated on the Martin Luther and reformation’s story book competition and 3 youths for the poetry competition.

As one of the organizer, I can say that it was a successful event to bring together youth for activities that they are passionate about. That created good relationship between youth and church leaders and helped young people to understand their identity as a Lutheran. One young football participant, Mr Bernard RABEMAHAZO 19 years of age, says:

« I never heard about these ninety five theses of Martin Luther’s before this activity and now knowing them I am even more pride to be Lutheran »

and a woman theologian Ms Raharisoa MAMONJY thanked the organizer for the program that “opened theologians eyes to rethink more about reformation’s basis after five hundred years”

Mami Brunah BARO SANDANIAINA from Madagascar is a LWF Council member and organizer of the opening activities of reformation anniversary activities in Malagasy Lutheran Church.

The watchword for the year 2015 can be found in the letter of Paul to the Romans in Chapter 15,Verse 7:

“Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.”

I find this watchword is a truly global one: only by accepting each other we can fully experience how to praise God. In another translation -the Revised Standard Version- it even reads as : “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

The apostle Paul speaks about acceptance and welcoming as key features of the Christian community. Isn’t that very beautiful? People of different attitude, character, color, race, language and gender can come together and praise God. But it is also challenging sometimes. You surely have some experiences when it is difficult to be open enough to welcome. How can this be improved in 2015 (and beyond!), how can we become truly welcoming?
In the LWF, we can learn about the attitude of acceptance and welcome in a spiritual and social way, but also very practically. During global encounters with the LWF communion we experience : We can listen to each other. We can respect each other. We can celebrate together. We can praise God together.

And the light and joy of this celebration will shine into our fragmented world.

The LWF General Secretary Martin Junge reflects in his New Year’s Message:

In a world characterized by communication breakdowns, by withdrawal and fragmentation the prophetic witness of Christian communions – local and global – will be seen in their capability to accept, welcome and embrace the other. It is this acceptance of the other that reveals both the centeredness and rootedness in Christ. And it is hence this ability to accept and embrace the other that gives glory to the Triune God.

Youth and Children in a rural Lutheran congregation in Papua New GuineaPicture by LWF/Marie Renaux

The LWFyouth Desk wishes you joy, inspiration, strength, courage, tolerance and global friendships in this new year 2015. May it be a welcoming one!

Surely, it is going to be an exciting and renewing one…as we are looking forward to the global programs in 2015:

The Global Young Reformers Network – with the global meeting in Wittenberg and regional meetings in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Latin America

Is pledging time for church really worth it?

Allow me, for minute, to take you back to my childhood. We had quite a big family, an extended family for that matter and we weren’t well-off, sometimes we’d sleep on empty stomachs, be it on a Saturday night but one thing for sure we did was to go to church on every Sunday. Grandma would wake us early in the mornings and have us prepare and get ready for church, which would be situated just a stone’s throw away from our compound, we obviously walked, and along the way we’d go knocking at our friends’ houses and have them tag along. We didn’t have so many ties and obligations, and indeed life was wonderful! I was in the choir and yeah I sang a little bit in Sunday school. Grandma taught us the golden rules, the 10 commandments, and she said, “Son do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, she said, “Don’t steal”, “Don’t bear false witness against your neighbour” and so on, you know all the things good parents try to instil into their children. But as a child, particularly, a teenager, trouble was never far away from me, time and again, I would find myself in the wrong side of what I was advised against. And umm, she said, “Thato, stay out of trouble”, I tried to be as good a child can be amidst all the confusion.

With that said, let’s now get back to the substance of the question which has been put forth. Is pledging time for church really worth it? I am going to leave it all up to you to decide if the answer given really satisfies the praiseworthiness of pledging our time to the church.

Let me first start by reflecting on what the church is.

The church is the body of Christ—a group of people unified (Ephesians 4:1-3) under Christ, who represent and reflect Him to the world (1 Corinthians 12:12-17). The purpose of the church is to join people of different backgrounds and talents and provide them training and opportunities for God’s work. It accomplishes these both internally, within the body, and externally, in the world.

Acts 2:42 explains the internal function of the church: “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Jesus entrusted the church with the task to teach the body sound doctrine. There are many influences in the world that claim to have the truth, but God entrusted His word to the church (Ephesians 4:14). Still, knowledge of doctrine is useless if it isn’t used (1 Corinthians 13:2): “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-13 NIV). Sound teaching leads to spiritual maturity which leads to building up the body of Christ.

The purpose of the church is also to provide a place to “break bread.”

Often, this means just eating together and living life together (Acts 2:42). Formally, we break bread at the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). The practice of the Lord’s Supper unifies us as it reminds us that we are all saved by Christ’s sacrifice. Practically, it also provides an opportunity to reconcile differences and right wrongs as we examine our interactions with fellow believers (1 Corinthians 11:27-28).

The natural result of sound teaching and a unified body is that the members of the church will take care of each other. The most powerful way to care for others is to pray for them (Acts 2:42). Just as the early church prayed for each other (Acts 12:5; Philippians 1:3-4), so we should bring each others’ needs before God (Philippians 4:6-7). Within the church we are also called to show honour (Romans 12:10), compassion (Ephesians 4:32), encouragement (1 Thessalonians 5:11), and love (1 John 3:11). And we are to meet each others’ practical needs. James 1:27 says, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” One of the primary purposes of the church is to provide for the needs of its members (Acts 20:34-35; Romans 15:26).

Externally, the purpose of the church is to fulfil the Great Commission as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20. There is no nobler purpose for the church than to introduce others to Christ. We do this in part by making sure we faithfully represent Him and become who He has called us to be. Philippians 2:15 exhorts us to be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.” Whether we witness to people in our neighbourhoods or send others to foreign lands, the church is called to manifest the Holy Spirit in us by embodying Jesus’ character and telling others about Him.

The purpose of the church is to be the believer’s spiritual family.

It is through the church that God takes people with different personalities and gifts, unifies them as a single body, and equips them to care for each other and reach the world. We were not meant to live the Christian life alone; surrounded by the biblical teaching and loving community of the church, together we find our own purpose in life.

The (LWF Strategy 2012 -2017) demands that young people must have a place and a voice in all aspects of church and communion life,

including decision making and leadership; its in this respect, that Warriors In Christ, an initiative by Thato Ramakoba of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana came into being. The main aim of Warriors In Christ is to help mobilize the youth to take interest in church activities, it supports the view that the interest of the church lies with the youth who are in truth the moral fibre of the church, therefore, its the responsibility of the youth to ensure that the welfare of the church is maintained sustainably without discrediting it in anyway. Like warriors our interest lies with the church, we would do anything for the church to ensure that it achieves its set goals and targets. Our audience is the youth themselves; simply put, we’re the stewards, and we provide our services as per our varying talents to the church without any expectation.

As Warriors In Christ we stand by the values of commitment

and shared responsibility thus we long to know each other and through this initiative we also intend to recruit other people to take the interest in sharing responsibilities in the church and come up with more ideas which will see the church changing its complexion for the better. In the fall of August, we launched our first activity at our Youth Centre (Galaletsang Youth Centre) where our Head Office is housed. . Prior to the 9th of August 2014, we sat down as an Interim Committee and decided on what activity to embark on; we then unanimously agreed that we’d do the cleaning of the entire centre. We started off the activity with introductions and a mini orientation of what Warriors In Christ is and its intentions as well as the introduction of our first activity. With pleasure, majority of the youth from the Central Circuit were in attendance, the activity started, we did all that was agreed upon in one spirit. Early evening, we had barbecue with some veggies and pap (pap is a traditional porridge/polenta made from mielie-meal and a staple food of the Bantu inhabitants of Southern Africa) around the bonfire. It is at the bonfire where we got to know each other at a personal level; we passed jokes, told stories and shared our visions for the ELCB. Seeing that it was getting late, we had a closing mass prayer and called off the day. Fun we had, thanks to LWF and the Central Circuit Youth for the cooperation!

Author: Thato Ramakoba who is the Warriors In Christ Coordinator in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Botswana